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Trump Falsely Claims Nations with Fewer Cases Don't Test; No ICU Beds Available at Florida's 49 Hospitals; CDC Updates Guidance for COVID Patients Who are Isolating; Atlanta Mayor Slams Governor Brian Kemp's Lawsuit; Trump Disputes FOX News Poll Showing Him Trailing Biden. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 19, 2020 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:01]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for joining me on this Sunday. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. And we begin this hour with new and harrowing milestones in the coronavirus pandemic.

At least 140,000 Americans are dead. More than 3.5 million that we know of have been infected and in some of the nation's had hotspots the numbers are especially grim. In Florida, no ICU beds are available at 49 hospitals statewide. Arizona is reporting the highest one-day death count since the pandemic began. And we just learned both Georgia and North Carolina set record daily highs for new cases.

The numbers can't be denied. But yet the president continues to push the debunk claim that cases are up because of testing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Cases are up. Cases are up, many of those cases should even be cases. Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing. No country has ever done what we have done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Again, the numbers don't lie. In Arizona Saturday a staggering 39 percent of test results came back positive. 39 percent. Other states are also reporting record high positivity rates. Health experts argue the increased rate of infections far outpaces the increased rate of testing. Despite those facts the president is making an astonishing prediction. One we've heard from him before. That this virus is just going to disappear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will be right eventually. You know, I said, it's going to disappear. I'll say it again, it's going to disappear and I'll be right.

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Does that discredit you?

TRUMP: I don't think so.

WALLACE: Why?

TRUMP: I don't think. You know why it doesn't? Because I have been right probably more than anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Straight to the White House now and CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, I just played a couple of moments there from the president's appearance on FOX News this morning. Another claim he made has to do with how much other countries test their citizens, versus the U.S. Give us a fact check.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. What we saw from the president in this interview is more of what we -- more of the same of how we have seen him handle this pandemic from the very beginning. And that is, the president downplaying the threat of the virus and deflecting responsibility for what is going on as well as fighting with the science and the facts.

And one of the facts that the president continues to tangle with is this notion that testing is responsible for the surge that we are seeing in the United States when we are not seeing that kind of surge in the European Union, for example. Listen to how the president sees the difference in what's happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're having surges.

WALLACE: Their surges are 6,000 in the whole European Union.

TRUMP: They don't test. They don't test like we do.

WALLACE: Is it possible that they don't have the virus as badly as we do?

TRUMP: That's possible that they don't test. That's why it's possible. We find cases and many of those cases heal automatically. We're finding -- in a way, we're creating trouble. Certainly we're creating trouble for the fake news to come along and say, oh, we have more cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: You wanted the fact check, Ana, here it is. Cases are up 194 percent while testing is only up 37 percent. So clearly the rate of positive cases is rising much faster than testing. As it relates to the United States and the European Union, the U.S. is currently experiencing a positivity test rate for coronavirus of nearly 9 percent, compare that to European Union countries, most of them are under the recommended 5 percent positivity test rate -- Ana.

CABRERA: We know the president really wants to reopen the country. That perhaps is one of the reasons he keeps on trying to downplay the coronavirus. And a lot of Americans are wondering about this because their concern about their financial situation, Jeremy, is more help on the way in terms of stimulus payments? What do you know?

DIAMOND: Well, there have been informal conversations between the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the last couple of months and the last few weeks in particular. But the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said today in an interview that tomorrow those discussions between the White House and in particular Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill will begin in earnest.

Now the question is what will be included in this bill. It's expected to have roughly $1 trillion price tag based on what Republicans are at least looking at. But even between Republicans on Capitol Hill and Republicans at the White House, before they even get to the part where they're negotiating with Democrats, there have already been some disagreements, one of them in particular is over the question of whether or not to add funding to the CDC.

The White House somehow is arguing that there should not be additional funding for the CDC. That's a position that's opposed by many Senate Republicans. This bill is also going to have some economic components to it as well. At least that's the expectation. It will have some protections for businesses. That is one thing that the White House is looking for and that President Trump in particular has talked about.

And Democrats are also looking to add those -- to get those unemployment benefits, the supplemental unemployment benefits for Americans amid coronavirus to have those extended. They are expected to expire soon. So that is something that lawmakers are looking to have included in this next relief package -- Ana.

[19:05:08]

CABRERA: Nothing obviously a done deal yet. Jeremy Diamond, at the White House, thank you.

Today, Florida reported another 12,000 new COVID-19 cases. It's the fourth time Florida has reported such high numbers. And as we also learned, 49 hospitals statewide have no ICU beds available right now.

CNN's Randi Kaye is in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Randi, we know the governor still refuses to issue a mask mandate, but the numbers aren't heading in the right direction, and it's not because we're testing more.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely not. We know that nationally and also as well here in the state of Florida, as you mentioned, more than 12,000 new cases, 12,478 new cases in the last 24 hours. That brings the total to more than 350,000 cases statewide. Also another 87,000 deaths so we're looking at just under 5,000 deaths statewide here in Florida.

This is also the fourth day this month, and since the pandemic began, that we've seen more than 12,000 new cases in a single day. So the numbers are certainly alarming. Statewide, Ana, 9300 people hospitalized across Florida. In Miami-Dade, one of the hardest hit counties certainly here in southern Florida, ICU capacity at 127 percent. They have zero ICU beds left and they are in such demand that they are now converting regular hospital beds to ICU beds.

In fact, more than 2,000 people are now hospitalized in Miami-Dade County, 507 patients in ICU beds, and 286 patients requiring ventilators. So certainly a lot of concern there. But statewide as you said also, 49 hospitals now at last check without any ICU beds, Ana. So the numbers are not good, but they are getting some Remdesivir here in the state of Florida. We know that does help COVID-19 patients so they are bringing that in, 30,000 vials apparently, in the next few hours, going directly to the hospitals.

The governor said he went straight to the White House. He knew that we needed it. And he does hope that it could help and possibly save 5,000 to 6,000 patients here in the state, Ana.

CABRERA: Right. That's one of the only proven treatments right now.

Randi Kaye, thank you for that update.

The president also made another misleading claim in his interview with FOX News. This one is about the mortality rate. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world. Do you have the numbers, please? Because I heard we had the best mortality rate.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Sir, this (INAUDIBLE) as Dr. Birx points out. And this is --

TRUMP: Number one low mortality rate. I hope you show this on air because it shows what fake news is all about.

WALLACE: OK. I don't think I'm fake news, but we'll put up --

TRUMP: Well, yes, you are.

WALLACE: We'll put our stats on.

TRUMP: You said we had the worst mortality rate in the world, and we had the best.

WALLACE: I said we had --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: With us now is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Ashish Jha.

Doctor, great to have you with us on this Sunday. What do we know about the mortality rate in the U.S. right now? And how does it compare to other countries? DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes, thank

you for having me on. Mortality rate is a bit of a funny statistic. So let's talk about what most public health experts actually track. I mean, certainly we've had more Americans die of this disease than any other country. Even if you do, Ana, per capita basis, you know, just based on the fact that we are a bigger country, we still have one of the highest numbers of deaths.

You know, I think what the president may be alluding to is number of deaths over number of cases. And that's actually a hugely misleading statistic because when you get a massive outbreak like what we're having in the south right now, your cases go way up. Deaths tend to lag and your mortality starts looking better in the short run.

So nobody tracks short-term mortality rate because it can be very, very misleading. If the question is on a per capita basis, how's America doing in terms of deaths, the answer is well, we are one of the worst in the world.

CABRERA: OK. Those are the facts. Thank you for all of that. This weekend, the CDC updated some guidance for self-isolation if you test positive saying you don't need to isolate more than 10 days if symptoms have improved and you don't have a fever for at least 24 hours. This at least sounds like some good news, especially when you think people may not have to take off a full two weeks of work.

JHA: Yes, look, I think we're learning a lot about the virus. I think that's an important update. I have looked at the underlying data behind their new recommendations and what we find is that a vast majority of people stopped shedding the virus by about 10 days after their symptoms, especially if they've stopped having fevers. So I like that update on the recommendation. It does make it a little bit shorter.

I will add one caveat which they acknowledged, too, which is if you are going to be working in a high risk situation, so if you work in a nursing home or if you're a health care worker taking care of patients, you should probably continue a slightly longer duration of isolation because a small percentage of people will continue shedding virus and obviously if you are in a high risk situation, we really can't afford that. But for most people I think that's probably right.

[19:10:01]

CABRERA: This is another update because we heard the White House testing czar say this week you don't need to repeat tests if you've tested positive for COVID-19 saying the two negative test standard is no longer needed. One, do you agree, and two, can that make a difference now with the testing shortcomings here in the U.S.?

JHA: Yes, so we really have a pretty substantial shortcoming of our testing. So we are starting to ration and we're trying to figure out where can we cut back on testing. I think it's reasonable, again, if you're not in a high risk situation, work situation, let's say, it is reasonable that after 10 days of no -- or after the onset of symptoms, if you want to get back to work, and again, you are not working in a high risk situation, you may not need negative tests.

And again, that's just based on the data that we're learning that most people stop being infectious, so I do think it's progress. It should save us a few tests. It's not going to get us out of the testing quagmire that we're in. We will still need to fix it but this could help on the margins.

CABRERA: Why do we have a testing quagmire still? And what would fix this?

JHA: You know, there is this kind of world view in the White House which baffles every -- you know, every doctor, every medical expert I know, that they have -- I think they really believe that more testing is bad for America. And they -- I don't understand, of course, we know that because of a lack of testing, outbreaks are getting worse. We know that because of a lack of testing, it's going to be hard to get kids back to school.

There's all sorts of costs of not having enough testing, but the White House does not seem motivated at all to try to fix it.

CABRERA: The conversation about reopening schools obviously is a big one and it continues, it will continue until the fall and there's this new study out of South Korea finds children older than 10 spread as much as adults, but children younger than 10 transmit far less. You called this one of the best studies we've had to date on this issue. What do we need to know?

JHA: Yes. So it is a really high quality study. It's large in terms of its sample size. It's carefully done. South Korea does a really terrific job of testing and tracing which is why they have such low numbers of cases. And what they find in this study is that older kids seem to essentially transmit the way adults do. But younger kids do transmit a lot less.

Is this the final data point? No. And there have been a lot of other studies that have found similar effects. Some studies have found that even older kids transmit less. I guess I would say two things. One is, we're not sure yet. We're still learning, but I think the data is becoming pretty clear that the young kids really do transmit less and that to me means one more reason to think about how to get younger kids back to school, assuming you are not in a hot zone with wild outbreaks of virus in the community. I think we can really start thinking about is there a safe way to get the young kids back in.

CABRERA: OK, Dr. Ashish Jha, that's good news. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.

JHA: Thank you. Thank you.

CABRERA: The battle between the governor of Georgia and the mayor of Atlanta just intensified with accusations of racism and sexism, and it couldn't come at a worst time. The state just set a new record in daily cases. We'll take you live to Atlanta next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:15]

CABRERA: Georgia is now reporting its highest number of new cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic. More than 4,500 new cases. And this new surge is happening as Republican Governor Brian Kemp is suing the mayor of Atlanta over her city's mandatory mask order. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is now slamming the governor's lawsuit and implying it may be motivated by sexism or racism.

CNN's Natasha Chen is joining us from Atlanta now. And Natasha, this rift comes at a time when Georgia really needs its top officials to pull together.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ana. It's creating confusion and the lawsuit is just the latest in these escalating tensions between the state's two highest profile politicians. This lawsuit is really about the governor saying local jurisdictions can't make rules that are more or less restrictive than statewide orders. So he is naming this city's rollback to phase one which is asking restaurants for example to go back to curbside pickup or delivery and of course mentioning that mask mandate.

Granted there are other cities in Georgia that have mask mandates but he hasn't sued them. Here is Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta talking publicly about whether this lawsuit is a personal thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA: There were other cities in our state who instituted mask mandates and he did not push back against them. I don't know if it's because perhaps they were led by men or if it's perhaps because of the demographic in the city of Atlanta. I don't know what the answers are. But what I do know is that the science is on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And the lawsuit does talk a lot about local cities, how they shouldn't create more confusion for people. Because here in Atlanta, there are a lot of businesses scratching their thinking that there's not real clear guidance here.

Keisha Lance Bottoms continued to tweet this morning saying that another part of the lawsuit, she feels, is trying to restrict her from even speaking to the press. When we asked the governor's office about this, they said that she is interpreting it too narrowly, that this is really about her not making public statements to further confuse people.

Here's the quote from the governor's spokesperson. "The mayor is mischaracterizing the truth to confuse people. She's taken several actions inconsistent with the governor's order and threatened the livelihoods of Georgians without legal justification." Ana?

CABRERA: So what are businesses or restaurants and other businesses saying given there's this rift and you talk about confusion happening?

CHEN: Yes. This restaurant behind us, the Pig and the Pearl, the owner told us that she was confused about who was actually giving the orders here and she herself has decided for her business model to stay open with the strictest health precautions in place.

[19:20:06]

But we also talked to the owners of Home Grown, another Atlanta restaurant. They completely shut down trying to follow the mayor's orders because they say that if they stayed open even for curbside that they'd be operating at a loss. Bottom line is the owners there tell me these politicians need to grow up. Another restaurant owner, Zeb Stevenson of Redbird said that they feel like children in the middle of a divorce between two parents. And no matter what decision they make for their restaurant, it's now seen as political, Ana.

CABRERA: And everybody is hurting. Natasha Chen, thank you.

If the election were held today, Donald Trump would be a one-term president, at least according to the polls. So would he accept those election results if they end up becoming reality? His answer, next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:25:23]

CABRERA: President Trump today disputing and rejecting a FOX News poll that shows him trailing Joe Biden in the 2020 race. The president even calling the poll fake. His comment coming in a testy interview with FOX News' Chris Wallace.

Now this poll showing Biden leading Trump nationwide 49 percent to 41 percent. It's an eight point margin which is smaller than other recent polls that showed Biden with a double-digit lead.

Joining us now is CNN senior political writer and analyst, Harry Enten.

Lots of new polls and data this week, Harry. What do you see?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, lots of new polls. Four new polls and in fact if you average those four new polls as you were sort of hinting at, it actually shows Biden with a larger advantage than the FOX News polls individually. In fact it has Biden up by double digits in over 50 percent. Compare those four polls and you take the average back from May and June, the last time those polls were in the field, then what do you see? You saw Biden only up by nine.

So what we see is Biden's margin actually slightly expanding. Now here's the key reason why I think that margin is expanding. Look at Donald Trump's approval rating in the average of those four polls on the coronavirus, his response to it. And what do we see? We see his approval rating falling into the 30s. Back in May and June, it was in the mid-40s, not great, but not as bad as it is right now.

His approval rating in the high 30s, that is a really bad place to be if you're an incumbent of the United States.

CABRERA: And Harry, you say you see signs he is losing some of his base over the coronavirus?

ENTEN: Yes, in fact, take a look at the most recent Quinnipiac poll and compare it back to the Quinnipiac poll in April. And what do you see? Among Republican rural voters non-college whites, look, he's at 50 percent or over with all those groups still right now in July. But compare that back to April, and he has dropped by double digits among all of those groups. So to me, it's pretty clear looking at the data that even Donald Trump's base is starting to at least abandon him just a little bit over the coronavirus.

CABRERA: What about geography and the suburbs? We know President Trump has been hoping to win over suburban women by, you know, his reopen the schools push.

ENTEN: Yes, this to me is the most telling statistic. So take a look at an average that I took of the suburban cross tab right now, in July of 2020, and compare it to the cross tab back in July 20, 2016. And what do we see? We see that Joe Biden is up by 16 points on average among suburban voters. That is a significantly wider margin than Hillary Clinton had at this point back in July 2016 when she was only up by two points.

In fact, Ana, if this margin held for Joe Biden through the election, it would be the largest win for a Democratic candidate among suburban voters basically since polls started asking questions from suburban voters back in the '40s.

CABRERA: But this all comes down to the electoral college, right? So what's going on there?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, obviously the popular vote is one thing, but we learned of course in 2016, the lesson that the electoral college may show something different. There was a Monmouth University poll out from Pennsylvania this past week, and what it essentially showed across different likely voter models and register voter models was that Joe Biden up double digits again, up by 10 points.

Hillary Clinton at this point back in 2016, she was only up by about two points in Pennsylvania. So that widening margin that we see in the national polls is going down to the state level and the fact that Biden is doing better in the national polls than Hillary Clinton also being seen in a key state like Pennsylvania.

CABRERA: Harry, you can do it like nobody else, and you're going to keep crunching the numbers for us and bringing us these updates. Thank you so much for that update tonight. Good to see you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you, Ana.

CABRERA: I want to bring in CNN political commentator and former Republican congresswoman from Utah, Mia love, along with CNN political commentator Paul Begala who served as an adviser to President Bill Clinton.

So, Congresswoman, let me start with you, and you look at the new ABC News-"Washington Post" poll out today and it's rather striking, beyond, you know, the overarching number. Americans are more likely to say they trust Biden over Trump to handle the coronavirus outbreak, race relation and crime and safety? Americans also broadly see Biden as having the better personality and temperament to serve as president. A better understanding of problems of people like you and as better able to unite Americans rather than divide them. As well as more honest and trustworthy.

Should the president be concerned? Why do you think he is losing on all of these?

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that there's a lot of frustration right now. The economy was doing well which was one of the greatest plus points. The things that he was just going out talking about. I think that there is some cause for concern.

[19:30:00]

However, I know as well as everybody else that has looked at these polls that on Election Day, things can shift. So many things can change.

And what I would focus on if I were the President is getting people back to work while keeping them healthy. We need a leader, not somebody who is going to go out and say, I don't trust these polls, or I think we're doing great in the United States and other people are doing worse.

I think we need to look at what's happening in the United States and say, are we happy with the results that we're getting in terms of the virus, in terms of the division, in terms of the economy -- all of it.

So he has got a lot of work to do. And if I were the President, I would focus on leading America because he is still the President of the United States and this has to be about protecting Americans.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Paul, President Trump does fare better on the economy which he is barely holding on to though, but you know, he is running even or slightly ahead in this poll and others. Is that his saving grace?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But he has eroded. I tell you, his saving grace is that he watches cable news all the time and he might just listen to Mia Love. I don't think he will. I think he's too vain and stupid. But what Mia said is exactly right.

This is one of the situations where good policy is going to be the best politics. We have a pandemic going on. It's killing Americans in record numbers, 140,000 dead and it's crushing our economy. Do your job, sir. Do your job. That will move the polls. He seems incapable of doing that, though. And meanwhile, Joe Biden gave a major speech last week on the economy

eating right into Trump's last vestige of political strength. So the thing is, he really does have to do something to save our lives and that would be the best thing, frankly, to save his poll numbers.

CABRERA: Polls have shown that Trump supporters are enthusiastic to cast a vote for their candidate while Biden supporters are more enthusiastic to cast a vote against Trump. The President seizing on this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The enthusiasm for Trump is through the roof.

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: I have mentioned it.

TRUMP: Even higher than last time. The enthusiasm for Biden is nonexistent. Everyone knows he is shot.

WALLACE: But the enthusiasm against you is high.

TRUMP: Well, that is okay. That's his only shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Congresswoman, should Democrats be worried that voters are more enthusiastic about voting against Trump than for their candidate?

LOVE: Well, whoever can pull the most people to the polls is, you know, going to have a really good chance. I still am not going to count the President out.

I still think that Joe Biden has a lot of work to do. I still think that there are supporters of the President that are sticking with him and that see, the last two years as being very difficult for the American people, impeachment in all of 2019. You've got the epidemic -- the pandemic, excuse me, in 2020.

There are people that are just going to stick with the President and they're going to go to the poll just because they don't trust Joe Biden. They don't trust the policies. They don't trust he can actually do the job.

CABRERA: The President was asked how he would handle the election results in November if things don't go his way. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Are you a good loser?

TRUMP: I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose it. I don't lose too often. I don't like to lose.

WALLACE: But are you gracious?

TRUMP: You don't know until you see. It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do.

WALLACE: Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election?

TRUMP: I have to say, look, Hillary Clinton asked me the same thing.

WALLACE: No, I asked you the same thing in the debate.

TRUMP: No, no, but --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Paul, what is your reaction to that?

BEGALA: He telegraphs every punch. He's already telling us, look, he thinks he's going to lose. The polls suggest he might. There's a long way to go, long way to go. But he's in bad shape in the polls. So he is trying to discredit the election result before it even happens.

It's like saying on November 3rd, I'm going to rob the bank at Fifth and Main. He is already telegraphing that he is going to refuse to relinquish power.

But this is the acid test of democracy. Do you put your patriotism ahead of your partisanship? And we have a perfect example of doing the right thing on this broadcast.

Mia Love lost her re-election by 694 votes, out of 269,000 cast. It is the closest race in America and Mia, you know what you did? You stood up and did the right thing. You congratulated your opponent and you got on with your life.

You put your patriotism ahead of your partisanship, and we disagree about politics, but I admire your character and the character you showed there.

LOVE: I still don't like it and I don't like you.

BEGALA: But Mia, you did it.

CABRERA: Mia, let me come back to you on the issue about the economy that you brought up as you know, one of the strengths for this President although with the coronavirus pandemic, it is becoming a big issue. He is starting to lose support there as well.

The extra $600.00 unemployment benefit goes away at the end of this month. Right now, it doesn't look like Republicans and the White House are on board to renew that.

Ahead of an election where Republicans are concerned about down ballot races, in particular the potential of losing the Senate, can they afford to be the reason Americans don't have that extra $600.00 in their pockets?

[19:35:23] LOVE: This is why it's so important to get away from arguing against

who is right and who is wrong, whether the United States is doing better than Russia or worse than South Korea. What can we do to get people back to work? Because that's what the American people need to hear.

And frankly, I am a little concerned about what's going to happen. You've got so many people on unemployment, they're going to be losing the assistance that they've had. People need to feed their families, yet people are still afraid to get back and get out to work because they're afraid of getting sick.

So again, we need a leader. We need somebody who is going to come out and say, this is my plan for America. I don't care what the other nations are doing, this is what we're going to do because we're not happy with where we are right now.

And so I think he really needs to focus on that and stop with all of the other stuff that he is doing, the arguing the facts and get back to leading this country.

CABRERA: Paul, I only have about 30 seconds left. But I have to ask you about the White House moving the official portraits of President Clinton and George W. Bush from the grand foyer at that White House to the old family dining room, a small, rarely used room that's not seen by most visitors. What do you make of that?

BEGALA: You know, I think sometimes the President's frankly, piggish personal behavior distracts us from his spectacular incompetence.

President Clinton, I worked for him. He's my friend. I love him. I admire George W. Bush in many ways where their portraits hang doesn't matter in that it won't save a single human life. It won't help a single patient with coronavirus. It won't help a single person who's lost their job, or all the people who can't afford healthcare.

And that's what I think that this President needs to be focusing on instead of these piggish personal acts like this. It's just so beneath our country that he does that stuff.

CABRERA: Paul Begala and former Congressman Mia Love. Thank you both. Good to have you here.

Next, we head live to Portland where fires rage and projectiles flew. Early this morning, a police union building burning and now word that Congress is demanding an investigation into the Federal government's response to protests there. We will take you live on the ground as Portland Police have just spoken. That's next here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:44]

CABRERA: CNN has learned today, multiple House Committee Chairs are now calling for an immediate Inspectors General investigation into the actions of Federal officers and their use of force against protesters, and this includes what we're seeing in Portland, Oregon, where protests are still underway.

Federal authorities including camouflaged officers, arresting demonstrators putting them in unmarked cars. CNN's Josh Campbell is there for us. Josh, what is happening there on the ground?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ana, another night of protests here in Portland both downtown at the epicenter of these protests outside of the Federal building there. But also here, where I'm standing in North Portland. We're at the police union building, and last night, this was the scene of a fire.

Protesters were out here peacefully protesting in the streets and then some rioters came and actually set fire to this building. The flames billowing. Police moving in and moving back a number of protesters, clearing everyone out of this area.

Now as this fire was raging, there was also a protest downtown where we were outside this Federal building. Police had erected a metal fence to try to keep protesters back.

The protesters quickly disassembled that in a matter of about 20 minutes. That causing law enforcement to come out in full force launching teargas, launching projectiles. We were teargassed ourselves, along with our local media colleagues here on the ground who have been hard at work since this began over 50 days ago.

And one interesting thing we're learning from our colleagues in the local media is that there was a very noticeable shift in tone from these protesters that occurred after the Trump administration has ordered an influx of Federal officers to come into Portland.

The President says he is trying to stop destruction of Federal property. The protesters here are saying that they want to see the federal presence gone. Until that happens, we will see just this continuing cycle night after night -- Ana.

CABRERA: So what are local leaders saying about what's taking place?

CAMPBELL: Yes, it's a great question. So protesters are saying they want the Feds out of here. Interestingly enough, Portland City officials are saying the exact same thing.

Our colleague Jake Tapper this morning on CNN's "State of the Union" spoke to the Portland Mayor who had some very tough words for President Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TED WHEELER, PORTLAND, OREGON: What's happening here is we have dozens if not hundreds of Federal troops descending upon our city, and what they're doing is they are sharply escalating the situation. Their presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism, and it's not helping the situation at all. They're not wanted here. And what we're seeing is a blatant abuse of police tactics by the

Federal government by the Trump administration that is falling in the polls, and this is a direct threat to our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now this showdown continues between the Feds and between local leaders and protesters with no end in sight. As that continues, we also know as you mentioned at the top that U.S. House of Representatives leaders are now calling for an investigation into the actions of Federal leaders here.

Three powerful committee chairs have sent a letter to the Inspector General's office at the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Justice Department, again, asking them to review some of the police tactics that we've seen on the ground which themselves have been fueling so much of the protests here -- Ana.

CABRERA: Josh Campbell in Portland, Oregon. Thank you. I want to bring in CNN's national security analyst, Sam Vinograd.

Sam, what do you make of what's happening there in Portland and this news that now multiple committee chairs are calling for an investigation into the use of Federal officers there?

[19:45:13]

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Ana, under two Presidents, I worked to punish foreign officials who engaged in the kind of behavior we're seeing play out in Portland.

I've seen autocrats use the blanket excuse of law and order to abuse power. Now, it's happening here. We currently have unidentified and unwanted Federal officers deployed to Portland reportedly to protect Federal property.

But there are various investigations underway and litigation pending into both the statutory basis for these agents' deployment, as well as the tactics that they're using.

The ACLU is suing the Federal government over what it calls unconstitutional tactics by these officers. And it's important to remember that Portland is just one data point in a worrisome Trump trend.

For months, we have seen this administration degrade Democratic rights and Trump local officials when it's dissatisfied with local officials' response. We saw this play out in D.C., for example.

And while these activities impact Americans, they also have a global impact. I cringe to think what the implications will be if other countries follow our lead in this area.

CABRERA: More than 130 Twitter accounts including Joe Biden's, President Obama's, Bill Gates, Elon Musk's, they were all hacked this week. And I know you like other verified account users were impacted by this when accounts were locked down. What more have we learned about this?

VINOGRAD: Well, Twitter has historically been prime real estate for cyberattacks by a range of malign actors, including individuals and nation states.

Past attacks have included hacks into high profile accounts like the Associated Press, and even President-elect Obama's account, as well as ongoing influence operations by nation states like Russia.

Despite Twitter's track record, they have clearly failed to live up to the threat landscape. Last week, allegedly, a group of young hackers were able to access Twitter's internal systems. They targeted 135 accounts, tweeted from 45 and reportedly downloaded data from eight accounts.

Twitter took steps to mitigate the damage, but in certain respects, the damage is already done. In terms of sowing mistrust, if these hackers had had different motivations, they could have spread misinformation about everything from nuclear war to the 2020 campaign.

It's clear that absent enhanced security measures, Twitter is becoming a public safety risk.

CABRERA: All right, Sam Vinograd, it's always a pleasure. Thank you for being here.

VINOGRAD: Thanks.

CABRERA: Just a quick programming note. Join CNN's Fareed Zakaria as he investigates why President Trump believes in conspiracy theories. This new CNN special report, "Donald Trump's Conspiracy Theories" airs tomorrow night at nine here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:52:22]

CABRERA: Let me end tonight with this. Our nation's doctors deserve a big thank you. You've heard from a number of people on the front lines of this battle, the people who are literally saving countless lives every day. They're the ones who have the expertise. They are the ones who know what works and what is failing. They are the ones we should all be listening to.

But they also need our help. I want to read you part of a letter written by a doctor in Arizona who just tested positive for COVID-19 herself. She says, in one five-day stretch, she saw 79 people with coronavirus symptoms, 60 percent of them ended up testing positive and she writes, "Since Arizona reopened, our emergency department has become increasingly overwhelmed by this virus."

"When I walk into work, I clear my head, put on my PPE and grind. I felt the weight and the volume of what this virus can do. I've seen the surprise in people's eyes when I tell them they have the virus. I've heard the silence on the other side of the line when I tell next of kin, their family member has been put on a ventilator or died, and they will never see them again because of this virus."

"We've gotten to a point now where we don't have enough beds, staff, ventilators, dialysis machines, protective supplies to contain it."

Now she goes on to say, "We will do everything we can during this pandemic to save you if you are sick, all while knowing that it puts our own lives at risk. It's not only our job, it's who we are. The one thing I ask of you is to think of us when you go out to a restaurant or meet up with a friend or decide to not wear a mask, because it doesn't feel good."

"If you end up testing positive a week from now, would you regret your actions the week before?"

"I don't know how long it takes to make an N95 or a vaccine or a ventilator, but I do know how long it takes to make a doctor."

So again, thank you to all of our doctors and all those other health care workers for your tenacity, your courage and your sacrifice.

And in the words of Dr. Fauci --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Sometimes, you get so exasperated and run down by it that you think is never going to end. It will end. It will end through public health measures and science, I can tell you, will come to our rescue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So stay strong. Let's all do our part to fight this virus. I've said it before, but it bears repeating, if you do nothing else today and in the week ahead, wear a mask.

[19:55:09]

CABRERA: Keep your distance. Listen to the experts like Dr. Fauci and be kind.

That does it for me tonight. Thank you for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera. My colleague Wolf Blitzer picks up our coverage in "The Situation Room" after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)